The Infinite Task of Genealogy

The Indian polymath Muḥammad Murtaḍà al-Zabīdī (1145/1732-1205/1791) studied in Zabīd in the Yemen and then in the Hijaz before he chose to move to Egypt, where he embarked upon a unique career as a leading ḥadīṯ scholar, lexicographer, genealogist and Sufi traditionist of his time. By his philological-cum-ḥadīṯ-oriented activities which were combined with his comprehensive interest in a genealogy of Muslim culture, he greatly fascinated his contemporaries. Genealogical research, recording and writing were a central part of al-Zabīdī’s scholarly interest, and he became a widely respected authority in this field. He was contacted and consulted by scholars and visitors from very distant regions, collecting genealogical information from them and, at the same, responding to their queries about the past of their families and ethnic groups. In the following the central project of al-Zabīdī’s own genealogical research and writing, a commentary and extension of an important older genealogical book (al-Naǧafī’s al-Mušaǧǧar al-kaššāf) will be described and scrutinized. Like other works of al-Zabīdī, this commentary has remained unfinished, and even the manuscript situation of al-Naǧafī’s text itself remains highly complex. It is hoped to bring out the specific character of al-Zabīdī’s own genealogical approach, which aimed at a universal and, at the same time, updated genealogical framework for the Muslim world, and which perhaps fell victim of the boundless field into which he had plunged.